How difficult would it be to include a single media folder by default for any registered member? If that's not too difficult then that would be a simple and complete solution to the folder hierarchy problems. Just one single member folder could have a 50.000 file limit, regardless if those files are graphics, photos, songs, or video clips. Matter of fact, such a folder could also have an automatic yet adjustable (admin panel) file size limit included.

Someone else mentioned having 35.000 images see more loaded in a folder and everything still working. That's all good and well, but you also have to look at the future. What about years down the road when you have thousands and thousands of members, or even worse, just one group of say 50 or so members who are totally into photo & music albums? I could easily see just 50 members having over 35.000 and for that matter even over 100.000 files. So keeping all media contained per member would definitely go a long way to keeping large multimedia files managed, contained, and streamlined for speed, all at the same time.